Craftsman jointer

I work at Sears and had walked by this jointer many times, noting its $229 price tag. I walked by it again the other day and saw that it was being closed out at a fraction of that price. I jumped.It had been on display for a good while. The blade guard had been broken off and the spring lost. The push blocks were also missing, but those are easy to replace. The safety key was missing from the power switch. Fortunately, three of my other power tools have keys that fit it.This jointer weights 57 lbs., has a solid feel, and runs with little vibration. It has a granite infeed table, outfeed table, and fence. They are glassy smooth and offer little resistance to the workpiece. The fence is set just slightly too far back, so the workpiece will have a slight ridge at the very back. This problem can be solved by placing a thin washer over each mounting bolt between the fence and mounting bracket.I was surprised at how quiet this machine is compared to my other shop tools. Also, the 2 1/2” dust port does a great job when connected to a shop vac.One or two downsides. While common parts like bolts and washers are still available, many of the unique parts are not. The drive belt and blade guard, for example, are no longer available. The cutter assembly had a good deal of cosmoline on it which spattered on the infeed table during operation. It took a while to clean the cutter assembly with a tar remover. I attempted to remove the blades for cleaning but all eight bolts were so tight I was afraid I’d bend the allen wrench.At this point, I have only attempted to remove 1/32” at a time from a 2×2 piece of oak. This jointer does that with ease.Overall, I am very pleased with this jointer. Maybe that’s because I actually enjoy refurbishing a basically sound tool.

The bolts are right hand threads and I did finally break them loose but it felt like the small allen wrench was going to bend or even break just before they broke loose. I actually like the granite so far. There is almost no drag and rust will never be a problem. Also, the granite is dead straight and square. I read a review where a fellow had something heavy fall on his brand new jointer and it broke one of the granite tables. A cast iron table wouldn’t have broken, I guess, but I’m fine – and careful – with the granite.

Another way to loosen stuck screws is to cut off an allen wrench of the right size and figure out how to chuck it in an impact driver. You have to fiddle around with various driver combinations to make it work (sockets, square drives, etc.). The impact driver can loosen most anything. Be sure to apply lots of pressure so the hole doesn’t round out.

-- I admit to being an adrenaline junky; fortunately, I'm very easily frightened

I had thought about the impact driver solution but I would have had to buy some things so I just worked at it until the allen wrench finally broke them loose. Yes, the allen wrench now has a bit of a curve to the long end. I had forgotten about the hammer tap trick. Thanks for reminding me!